AUGUSTA – The Maine Turnpike Authority is sending more representatives to an international conference in Vienna, Austria, than turnpike operations in seven other states that responded to inquiries by the Sun Journal on Friday.

The Maine Turnpike Authority has come under scrutiny for a $26,000 bill to send five representatives to the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association conference in Vienna next week.

Two of the larger states, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma, are paying for their turnpike officials to attend the conference, but are sending fewer people.

Florida has at least one turnpike official going, but the state isn’t paying for it.

The other four states – Ohio, Massachusetts, West Virginia, and New Hampshire – are keeping their turnpike officials home.

Four other states with turnpike operations – North Carolina, Texas, Minnesota and Delaware – did not return phone calls for comment.

The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority is sending three people, spending $2,102 apiece for hotel and airfare, plus any additional costs for meals and transportation, said Jack Damrill, public relations director for the authority.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is also sending three, said Bill Capone, communications director. He said they did not have an estimate on the cost, but the commission will reimburse any business-related expenses.

Oklahoma’s authority has about 650 employees and oversees 606 turnpike miles. Pennsylvania has about 2,280 employees and 537 miles. Maine has 438 employees and 109 turnpike miles.

Florida is not paying for any employees to go, said spokeswoman Nichole Kalil. James Ely, CEO of the Florida Turnpike Authority, is the president of IBTTA, so the association is paying for his trip.

It’s a matter of cost for West Virginia and New Hampshire officials.

“We don’t have that kind of money,” said Teresa Nissel, administrative assistant to the director of the West Virginia turnpike office.

Jon Hanson, assistant administrator in the New Hampshire Bureau of Turnpikes, said no one is attending the conference because the bureau is part of the Department of Transportation, thus doesn’t have a travel budget, unlike independent authorities such as Maine’s.

In Maine, debate about the travel expense comes at a time when the Legislature’s Transportation Committee is discussing raising tolls.

Comments on various blogs show that Mainers aren’t happy with the expense.

“That’s too much money, there should be greater oversight for this,” said Rep. Richard Cebra, R-Naples, a member of the Transportation Committee, when contacted Friday.

Dan Paradee, a spokesman for the authority, said the expense is an investment. The board makes multi-million-dollar decisions, he said, that involve investments in new technology.

“For $5,000 we provide them with the knowledge and expertise to help them make good decisions,” Paradee said.

The authority has benefited from conferences in the past, Paradee said. Decisions to recycle turnpike tickets in the late 1980s and later switch to an electronic system both emerged from earlier conferences and saved millions of dollars.

But Cebra said the Maine Turnpike Authority has spent irresponsibly before, citing an incident last year when nine authority managers and advisors went out for a business dinner and the tab amounted to $149 a person, which a consultant paid. Officials later apologized and reimbursed the consultant.

“I’m surprised they didn’t learn their lesson a year ago with the $295 bottle of wine,” he said, calling the Vienna trip a “slap in the face.”

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